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Waynesville Methodist Church donated $6,700 to Good Samaritan Resource Center's benevolence fund Thursday morning.
The money came from a highly successful campaign the church held called the Advent Conspiracy which was featured in the Dec. 17 Daily Guide.
The Advent Conspiracy was a campaign to spend less on material things during the holiday season and give that money to people who need it for basic things.
The project Waynesville Methodist Church intended to give money to was to help dig a well for the people of Machuquele, Mozambique, Africa at their sister church.
Rev. Bill O'Neal of the Waynesville Methodist Church told the Daily Guide the people of this village have to walk a day's journey for fresh water carrying ten gallon jugs and when they do this, they have to spend the night and walk back.
The cost to build the well turned out to be $10, 600 and O'Neal said they managed to raise the money within 3 weeks, but they didn't stop because anything over the top of what they needed for the well was earmarked for local donation.
The church encouraged the congregation to spend less on Christmas and make their gift giving more “relational,” according to O'Neal.
A relational gift is a gift that requires the gift giver and the receiver to spend more time together, these types of gifts help build relationships.
Examples given by O'Neal of relational gifts during the holidays were the giving of a can of coffee with the promise of sitting down together to drink it over the next year or writing journals to one another and exchanging them as Christmas gifts.
According to O'Neal, the congregation embraced the principals of the Advent Conspiracy and “people just seemed so much less stressed during Christmas.”
The final amount raised by the church was $17,000, allowing them to donate $6,700 to Good Samaritan's benevolence fund.
The benevolence fund, which is administrated by Good Samaritan Resource Center's Emergency Service Coordinator Vicki Hurlbutt, is used to help people in need.
Hurlbutt can use money from the fund to help pay utilities, help those in homeless situations and many other emergencies that bring people to Good Samaritan.
Hurlbutt manages multiple funds, but Good Samaritan's benevolence fund is the one with which she has the most leeway.
Good Samaritan Resource Center Director Connie Chambers and Hurlbutt agreed that the donation was one of the largest they had received and was “most welcome.”
Chambers said she hopes that other organizations and churches will try these kinds of ideas to further help the community.
Waynesville Methodist Church donated $6,700 to Good Samaritan Resource Center's benevolence fund Thursday morning.
The money came from a highly successful campaign the church held called the Advent Conspiracy which was featured in the Dec. 17 Daily Guide.
The Advent Conspiracy was a campaign to spend less on material things during the holiday season and give that money to people who need it for basic things.
The project Waynesville Methodist Church intended to give money to was to help dig a well for the people of Machuquele, Mozambique, Africa at their sister church.
Rev. Bill O'Neal of the Waynesville Methodist Church told the Daily Guide the people of this village have to walk a day's journey for fresh water carrying ten gallon jugs and when they do this, they have to spend the night and walk back.
The cost to build the well turned out to be $10, 600 and O'Neal said they managed to raise the money within 3 weeks, but they didn't stop because anything over the top of what they needed for the well was earmarked for local donation.
The church encouraged the congregation to spend less on Christmas and make their gift giving more “relational,” according to O'Neal.
A relational gift is a gift that requires the gift giver and the receiver to spend more time together, these types of gifts help build relationships.
Examples given by O'Neal of relational gifts during the holidays were the giving of a can of coffee with the promise of sitting down together to drink it over the next year or writing journals to one another and exchanging them as Christmas gifts.
According to O'Neal, the congregation embraced the principals of the Advent Conspiracy and “people just seemed so much less stressed during Christmas.”
The final amount raised by the church was $17,000, allowing them to donate $6,700 to Good Samaritan's benevolence fund.
The benevolence fund, which is administrated by Good Samaritan Resource Center's Emergency Service Coordinator Vicki Hurlbutt, is used to help people in need.
Hurlbutt can use money from the fund to help pay utilities, help those in homeless situations and many other emergencies that bring people to Good Samaritan.
Hurlbutt manages multiple funds, but Good Samaritan's benevolence fund is the one with which she has the most leeway.
Good Samaritan Resource Center Director Connie Chambers and Hurlbutt agreed that the donation was one of the largest they had received and was “most welcome.”
Chambers said she hopes that other organizations and churches will try these kinds of ideas to further help the community.
